Winners of Y Werin Legacy Fund Literary Awards Announced
The University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) is delighted to announce the winners of Y Werin Legacy Fund awards for distinguished scholarly contributions. The awards are adjudicated by CAWCS and independent judges in the fields of literature and Welsh law.
Reverend Professor Thomas Glyn Watkin, KC (hon), FLSW, receives the 2024 Hywel Dda Award for his lifelong contribution to the field and for republishing Pamffledi Cyfraith Hywel: Pamphlets on Welsh Law (Aberystwyth: The Welsh Legal History Society, 2024). He was born in the village of Cwm-parc in the Rhondda and received his education in Y Porth Grammar School for Boys and at Pembroke College, Oxford. He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1976. From 1975 onwards he lectured at Cardiff Law School, becoming a professor of law in 2001. In 2004, he was appointed professor and head of the new law school at Bangor, before returning to Cardiff in 2007 as the First Legislative Counsel to the Welsh Assembly Government. Now retired, he remains active as literary director of the Welsh Legal History Society, a Council member of the Selden Society, a member of the Law Commission’s Advisory Committee for Wales, a Fellow of The Learned Society of Wales, and as an academic bencher of the Middle Temple. Married with one daughter, he is also a non-stipendiary priest in the Church of Wales. In 2019 Professor Watkin was appointed as Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel) honoris causa. His book The Legal History of Wales was published by the University of Wales Press in 2007 (reprint 2012) and Legislating for Wales (with Daniel Greenberg) in 2018.
The award is provided from the fund raised by public subscription to commemorate the millenary celebrations of Hywel Dda in 1928. It is awarded to the person who has done most to advance the study of medieval Welsh laws and custom, or thrown most light upon their origins, history, language and palaeography.
The 2024 Sir Ellis-Griffith Memorial Prize is awarded to Ruth Richards for her monograph Golwg Ehangach: Ffotograffau John Thomas o Gymru Oes Fictoria (Cardiff: UWP, 2024). Ruth Richards is an author who specializes in the history of Wales during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her book, Golwg Ehangach, is based on her PhD at the School of Welsh, Bangor University, which analyses the work of the photographer John Thomas in the context of the literature and mindset of his time.
The award is presented annually in the name of Y Werin Legacy Fund from the Ellis-Griffith Fund and goes to the best Welsh-language publication focusing on Welsh authors, artists or artisans or their work. The prize is provided from a fund raised in memory of the late Right Honourable Sir Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith MA KC PC (1860–1926), former Member of Parliament for the County of Anglesey.
Dr David Callander is awarded the 2024 Vernam Hull Memorial Prize for his volume Trawsffurfio’r Seintiau: Llawysgrif Yale o Fucheddau’r Saint (Cardiff: UWP, 2024). Dr David Callander is Senior Lecturer in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University. His other publications include Dissonant Neighbours (UWP, 2019) and the co-edited volume Lliaws Rhith (UWP, 2025).
David Callander said, “It is a privilege and honour to accept the Vernam Hull Memorial Prize for the volume Trawsffurfio’r Seintiau. It is wonderful to be in the company of such brilliant scholars as have won the prize in previous years. I greatly enjoyed working on this book, which attempts to cross borders in various ways. Since publishing it, I have had the pleasure of visiting a number of churches, including the great church of Cybi in Holyhead, to discuss the texts I edited and it has been fantastic to see so much interest in the material. I hope it will catalyse further research on prose texts from Wales and provide models for comparing texts of different periods and in different languages.”
The prize/award is provided from the income of a bequest to the University of Wales by the late Dr Vernam Edward Nunnemacher Hull (1894–1976), Professor of Celtic Languages at Harvard University, who was awarded the degree of DLitt honoris causa by the University of Wales on the occasion of the International Congress of Celtic Studies in 1963.
On behalf of the Trustees of Y Werin Legacy Fund, Margaret Evans said: “I would like to congratulate the prize recipients on their success. I also wish to convey thanks to the adjudication panel for their work. The Trust is pleased to be able to continue to support and recognize academic achievement alongside signification contribution to Welsh scholarship.”
Notes for Editors
Contact: Dr Angharad Elias (Admin Officer) a.elias@wales.ac.uk
1. The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) was established by the University of Wales in 1985 as a dedicated research centre conducting team-based projects on the languages, literatures, culture and history of Wales and the other Celtic countries. It is located in Aberystwyth, adjacent to the National Library of Wales, which is an internationally renowned copyright library with excellent research facilities.
2. CAWCS offers unique opportunities for postgraduate students to work alongside specialists in a dynamic and supportive environment. We welcome enquiries about MPhil/PhD topics in any of our research areas. For more information about research opportunities, or for an informal chat about possible topics, contact our Head of Graduate Studies, Dr Elizabeth Edwards: e.edwards@wales.ac.uk
3. CAWCS is the home of the Dictionary of the Welsh Language: https://www.welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/
4. Y Werin Legacy Fund was established by the University of Wales Restricted Endowments Trust to make distributions and award scholarships, studentships, grants, prizes and awards from the restricted endowments originally donated to the University of Wales. www.ywerinlegacyfund.wales
Further Information
Arwel Lloyd
Principal PR and Communications Officer
Corporate Communications and PR
Email: arwel.lloyd@uwtsd.ac.uk
Phone: 07384 467076